Bridgewater slips out of his scrubs and into his smarts, and we're off to another hospital to get his neck checked out.

Surgeon's neck is an occupational hazard. "It's particularly true of heart surgeons," he says. "We do long operations, and when we take the internal mammary artery from the chest wall we have to get into a slightly funny position to do it." He contorts himself, to illustrate.

Bridgewater will typically be in surgery two days a week (two operations per day) and the rest of his time is dedicated to measuring clinical outcomes in the UK.

This has become increasingly important in the world of cardiac surgery following a report in 2001 which concluded between 30 and 35 children who underwent heart surgery at Bristol Royal Infirmary died unnecessarily as a result of substandard care.

Does he do private work? He exhales heavily. "I do. We recognised in our group of surgeons at the University Hospital that private practice is potentially incredibly destructive and divisive. If surgeons are rushing around competing for a bigger slice of a fixed pie in private practice, that is not compatible with improving the NHS.

"So we established a private practice consortium between the seven surgeons at our hospital whereby everybody does about a seventh of the work and gets about a seventh of the money."

If private practice is destructive, would it not be better to simply turn it down? "Philosophically, maybe yes. Do I think the amount of time I've dedicated to private practice has impaired my ability to work hard and do things within the NHS? I don't think it really has."

It is his NHS work that he's most proud of. And the NHS itself. It's not a perfect system, he says, and there are positive things in the health and social care bill – not least, the outcomes framework.

"In general, the NHS is terrible at measuring clinical outcomes. If you went on to Google and typed my name in, you'd find how many operations I'd done and what my mortality rates were for those operations. But if you wanted to find out useful information about outcomes in other areas, it's not there."

Measuring clinical outcomes in cardiac surgery has led to a 50% reduction in mortality rates over the past 10 years, he says. "People almost never die on the operating theatre any more. I've only had one person die on the table. It was horrible."

He disagrees with the basic premise of the bill, though. "People are starting from the position that the NHS is broken – and it's not."

He believes that the coalition is facing so much resistance because it has overstated the case for change. "They have been telling a lot of people who've been doing good work in the NHS: 'Your system is rubbish'." Actually, he says, huge advances were made under Labour – notably, the dramatic cut in waiting lists.

As for the idea that doctors will make better commissioners than managers who don't have a health background, he dismisses that as "naive" and a potential conflict of interest.

Will the bill have much impact on him? "I suspect not. My understanding is that the commissioning for cardiac surgery will be done nationally by specialist commissioning groups rather than locally."

We head back to his car. Bridgewater seems pleased with the report he's received about his neck. "They say it's just a bit of wear and tear."

Even professionals find the health and social care bill confusing. Below, as an introduction to this special series of interviews, Denis Campbell, the Guardian's health correspondent, explains what will happen if it goes through